Remains found in Iraq are KC man kidnapped in 2006

“It was just big and boisterous with a streak of ornery underneath.”

For roughly 490 days, John Roy Young's family held out hope, even when the news was bad or there was no news at all.

This weekend, though, the FBI informed the Kansas City family that Young was one of two kidnapped contractors whose remains had been recovered in Iraq.

Young, 45, had been missing but presumed alive since November 2006, when he and four other security contractors were kidnapped in an ambush on a convoy in predominantly Shiite southern Iraq.

Authorities notified the families of Young and Ronald Withrow, of Roaring Springs, Texas, of the discovery this weekend and released the news publicly on Monday. Withrow, a computer specialist for JPI Worldwide, was kidnapped at a phony checkpoint near Basra on Jan. 5, 2007. Read more